Malay language stations reach around 55 percent of Malaysia’s population every week, according to figures released by Nielsen.

The research house revealed that around 10.2 million people tuned into Malay stations during the most recent diary survey period (September/October 2014).

For the first time, Nielsen revealed how radio listenership in the country showed three distinct peaks; mornings between 8 am and 11 am, evenings between 5pm and 7 pm and at night between 9 pm and 11 pm.

Astro Radio’s ERA FM had the highest average weekly reach of 27.8 percent with 5.2 million listeners.

It was followed by SINAR FM which had a reach of 19.7 percent with 3.7 million listeners and Media Prima’s Hot FM 14.5 percent and 2.7 million listeners.

Chinese language stations had a reach of 22 percent with 4.1 million listeners and among them MY FM (Astro) was at the top with an average weekly reach of 10.9 percent, followed by one FM (Media Prima) with 6 percent and MELODY FM with 2.9 percent.’

Bilingual channels THR Raaga and THR Gegar recorded an average weekly reach of 20 percent with 3.8 million listeners.

The survey also revealed that 9 percent or 1.7 Malaysians listen to English language stations with Hitz FM leading the list with 5.8 percent.

Stations from Star Radio Group do not participate in the Nielsen research and are not reflected in the data.

Research executive Ting said: “This is an excellent opportunity for marketers to reach a larger audience as more Malaysians are listening to radio and majority of them are tuning in to their favourite stations for a longer periods of time.”